Down the Rabbit Hole
by Deyna Ian Bloom
Summary: Mikayla came to Pandora to photograph it, not to be unknowingly mated for life with the chauvinist Na'vi warrior, Vyriz. Half human/half avatar, she steals his heart with her fearless spirit, and he steals hers with his unfailing sarcasm. OC
1. Prologue: Six years

Pandora.

The planet of riches. The planet of new beginnings. The planet of death.

I never really cared about my mother's research on Pandora. She could hug trees all she wanted. Unfortunately, even though I lied when I told my mom I read her books, she pulled strings and got me a free ride to Pandora. She left for the planet when I was young, so I never really knew her, but she provided for me and wanted me there with her. It was a little weird to think I'd be joining my long-lost mother.

I wasn't going there for her scientist mumbo jumbo. I was going there to photograph Pandora. Mom's publishers figured a literary view on Pandora was all fine and good, but people really wanted to see what everything looked like. Photographing earth wasn't all that exciting, so Pandora would be an adventure, in more ways than one. I'd seen pictures of when the earth was green and beautiful and I couldn't wait to see a planet that was just as breathtaking.

My shuttle shipped out in 2154, carrying five scientists, including myself, and our avatars. I didn't see the point in having one for myself, but since it was paid for and pretty cool looking, I didn't protest. Normal shuttles had hired guns aboard, but since the publishing company was paying for my shuttle, they preferred we ride first class.

Cryo sleep is strange. You fall asleep one minute, and the next second you wake up, six years have gone by. Every muscle in your body aches and you wonder if someone slipped you a bottle of vodka right before you woke up. When you look in the mirror, your face looks the same, your hair hasn't grown. Six years skipped. You didn't age at all, and nothing is gone from your lifespan. Seems like an even trade.

Our shuttle landed on the satellite station, and we were sent down to the planet in a lifepod ship. No sense in making a whole trip for just five people. The shuttle's crew went into cryo, waiting for us to finish our work, while we sailed down through the clouds.

Pandora.

The planet of the Na'vi. And now Mikayla Augustine's home. My home.


	2. Ch1: Vyriz

A.N: Good eye ;) being Dr. Augustine's kid is only a plot device to get her on the planet. I couldn't think of a better solid reason for her to be there, otherwise I wouldn't have done it. Mary-sues are not my forte, so I make sure to think everything out before writing a story. Something I had to learn the hard way ;) Oh and I totally wasn't trying to make the prologue sound like the movie's opening. Accidental awesomeness I guess hehe

i-i

After my initial shock and awe of Pandora (which was covered in trees, booyah), the next thing I noticed was the base seemed empty. We expected military thugs to be paroling the area but the parking lot was bare.

I rolled my eyes at the irony. Going light-years out into space, five years both ways, and no one was here. Guess we should've been old fashioned and called first. Ha.

Further investigation found a group of avatars and humans in the back of the complex, playing basketball no less. Although watching tiny humans trying to block huge Na'vi was pretty amusing. When we finally got their attention, they briefed us on the planet. I thought we knew everything we needed to know, but their news proved me wrong.

My mother was dead. Had been, for five years. The army was booted off the planet after a revolt and now the scientists and the Na'vi had a thriving co-existence.

I consider myself a pretty level headed person, and even though I try to deny my feelings about my mother, I'm not going to lie. I was looking forward to meeting her. I mean, everyone on earth knows about my famous mother and she's a legend on Pandora. I felt cheated. I'm the one person who should've known her the most, and I was five years too late.

I didn't even look like her. My father was one of the last Native Americans on earth. My look was alien on earth, the look of an almost dead race. I guess it's fitting for me to come here where everything was alien. The misfit isn't so different when everyone else is also unique. The only thing I inherited from her was my curly hair, which I kept straightened. Big black curls made me feel like a gothic Dolly Parton, when grouped with my huge tits.

As I came to find out, the scientists had grown in number over the years from various shuttles arriving, and there was now a colony, complete with babies, garden crops, and the complex being renamed to "New Delhi." The name was the topic of many jokes served to the source of the name, head scientist Max, and involved deli sandwiches. Any of the scientists who wished to remain in their avatar bodies had to pass the warrior test, join a clan, and have a religious "Eywa" ceremony. I wasn't down with the whole Eywa bullshit, but since I was Native American, I could respect their beliefs, and secretly called Eywa "Mother Earth" in my head.

I was eager to get to work, but there was a minor snag in my fun. Okay, a major one. Something had happened to my avatar during the trip and it wasn't ready for me to use. Great. So instead of letting it hinder me, I packed up 10 oxygen cylinders and left with a group of avatars.

Luckily, we didn't have to walk very far after the helicopter dropped us off. Walking in a terrain like this one when you're about 1/3 of the normal dimensions doesn't exactly work so well.

i—i

The Na'vi tribe lived in a huge tree. Not the same tree I'd heard about, but equally as massive. I'd worn bright red shorts so the huge natives wouldn't accidentally step on me.

"Hey guys, what's up?"

I heard a very American sounding voice come out of the crowd of natives. Confused, I looked around for the owner of it. It was the chief. What the hell? Standing next to him was Na'vi Barbie, and several children.

The rest of my group walked toward him and started talking with him and Na'vi Barbie. In my haste to catch up, I accidentally tripped over a very large Na'vi foot. I'm about as tall as these guys' knees, so their feet are bigger than my head.

The owner of said offensive foot nudged his guy friends and made a motion about the size of my breasts while saying something in his language that I'm pretty sure wasn't about my hair. So I did what any girl would do in said situation.

I kicked him.

Well, I tried to kick him. My karate sweep didn't really do much, but he got the point.

"Asshole, be respectful of a lady!" I grunted out, now kicking him repeatedly just because I could. He laughed again and grabbed hold of my backpack loop and lifted me up, like I was a little life-size dolly. I kicked the air and clawed at his hand. If only I could break his skin, damn it!

"Vyriz!" shouted the chief American dude. "Put her down, now!"

'Vyriz' dropped me. He fucking dropped me. I landed in more pain than expected, my leg bursting with it. Great. He broke my leg. Na'vi Barbie picked me up gently, saying something nasty to Vyriz in Na'vi and carried me away. I shot Vyriz the meanest look I could, and flipped him the bird.

"Hello, Mikayla, I'm Jake Sully," said the chief, after I was set down. "You're Grace's daughter?" I nodded, wincing as he gently felt my leg. "You got a lot of balls to come here in your human body. Where's your avatar?"

I whimpered out, "It's not ready yet." I screamed as he set the bone, not even warning me what he was doing. He wrapped my leg up and I tried not to pass out.

"Well, so much for your first trip here," he chuckled. "Norm can take you back to New Delhi."

"No," I protested. "I'm not wasting time just because some idiot broke my leg. I'm going to do my job even if I have to crawl."

Jake sighed. "Just like your mother…" I glared slightly. Thanks for the reminder that you knew her and I didn't. "Alright we'll assign you an escort to carry you."

How humiliating, I thought to myself. Being carried like a little baby. Na'vi Barbie, aka. Neytiri, picked me up again and took me back to the rest of the group.

"Vyriz will be your escort," she said in her accented English. Before I could protest, she added, "It is his duty now, since he harmed you."

This could be fun, I thought with an evil grin. Vyriz and Jake approached us, Vyriz now outfitted with something like a human hammock tied across his chest. I groaned as I realized that was for me. Great. I'd have to be pressed up against him. It would probably be best not to mention how much this is going to turn me on…..


	3. Ch2: What's gay?

A.N: I'm not moving too fast. I don't see the point of writing ten pages filled with, "Where's my avatar", "I packed this and this in my backpack" and "I stepped on a turd in the forest."

And I apologize if there's some present tense stuff, I keep writing in present tense and my fingers are typing on their own, so some typos might get past me.

i-i

Vyriz looked down at me, clearly as annoyed as I was. My irritation grew as Neytiri tucked me into the human hammock, Vyriz locking his jaw and curling his nose like the smell of human was close to the smell of dead carcass. My broken right leg, pressed up against his massive blue chest, started to get warm. I felt his heartbeat against my shoulder.

Oh gods, why does this have to be attractive? I have to be the one girl in the universe who is intensely turned on by muscles and the natural smell of men. I disguised my arousal, and annoyance caused by said arousal, as contempt for Vyriz. Neytiri gave me a look that said I better behave too, before pointing her long finger out to where I was supposed to be going, and shouting at Vyriz like he was a naughty two year old.

As he started walking out of the village, I realized his gait was much too fast for me and my little human body. My head started to spin and I remembered why I never liked virtual roller coasters.

"Hey," I said while tugging on his beaded quiver strap. "Slow down, Paul Bunyan." He ignored my tugging, even when I switched to his hair. "Oh gods, you'd better stop or I'll lose it all over your glossy perfection." I clutched my stomach, not entirely faking it, but he still didn't stop. To punish him, I grabbed a long braid near his ear and kept it tugged taunt in my hands.

Five minutes later, he stopped and just stood there like a vegetable. I could tell we where at the place I was supposed to take pictures, but my sweep of the area was interrupted when he lifted me from my armpits and held me out in front of him. The look on his face said it all: he wanted to drop me again.

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and glared at him. "If you break the other one, no amount of running or weapons will save you from my wrath, pretty boy." I waited for him to either set me down gently, or tuck me back into the hammock. Slowly, he lowered me to the ground, surprising me. I bent down to check my leg, and with one flick of his finger to my chest, he sent me flying to land on my ass in the nearby pond. Thank the gods my camera was waterproof.

He didn't laugh, but I could see he was trying not to. I flipped the bird again, and started to take pictures.

i-i

Three hours later, I was starting to wish I'd just gone alone. Not only did he follow me around like a tick, whenever he was in the way of a shot, I had to physically shove him out of the way before he'd move. My leg was starting to complain, and storm clouds rolled in. A quick glance said they had hail in them. Great.

I figured I had about half an hour, so I squatted and snapped a picture of Pandora hermit crabs, which were the size of one of my size 11 feet. I glanced up at Vyriz stroking the handle of his hunting knife and staring off into nothing. My gaze went down, without permission, and I examined his package. Or lack there-of.

Wow, his crotch was completely flat. He could've had a cooter behind that loincloth and no one would notice the difference. My eyes went back up to his face, except now he was looking at me. He knew exactly what I'd been staring at.

"On our planet, women are not so brazen with their eyes," he said, with the tone of a father catching his daughter squeezing her own boobs.

My mouth quirked upward. "Yes, well, on my planet, a woman's sexuality had been repressed and thought disgusting for thousands of years, until woman had had enough. We fought for our sexuality, just like the gays did. I have the right to look wherever I want, Saint Vyriz, and you can take your Stone Age view of women and shove it where the sun doesn't shine."

"What are gays?" he asked, his slight accent starting to become cute instead of annoying.

Up until that point, it hadn't occurred to me that my lingo was Earth-side, and most of it didn't have meaning to the Na'vi. He must've been a fast thinker for "gay" to be the only word he couldn't process.

"Gay is like two men, or two women." I looked past him and snapped a picture that included his right hip.

"Doing what," he asked, this time too confused for me to think he was pulling my leg.

"Umm…" Suddenly, I was a little too embarrassed to be discussing this, which was weird since I never blushed and I talked openly about my period. "You know….mating?"

His mouth fell open in shock, and I couldn't resist clicking my camera to capture it. "Why would your people do such a thing?" His disgust showed through his shock.

"You mean your people don't…" His face turned angry, as if it was a crime for me to even think Na'vi did that. "Oh…right. You only mate for mating purposes." He nodded. "What about for pleasure?"

"On occasion," he clipped out. In response to my confusion, he added, "Most mated couples do not care for each other. The male picks his mate, or his parents pick it for him, and the female must agree. They only mate for children."

Talk about sexual repression. I humphed, wordlessly conveying my disapproval, and snapped more pictures.

"The storm is upon us. We must go back." His face demanded obedience.

By the time I'd finished packing my camera up, the hail had started falling. Well, falling isn't the right word. More like landing like bombs. Each piece of hail was the size of my hand, and when the soil turned to mud, each landing made puddles of mud explode like gunfire.

As much as I wanted to capture this phenomenon too, reenacting Gettysburg wasn't really on my agenda. Forgetting Vyriz and my broken leg, I started limping to get away and go back to the complex. Vyriz caught me by the back strap of my face mask and picked me up. On my way back to his yummy chest, a piece of hail slammed into my already broken leg.

I passed out.


End file.
